Life Sentence For 9 Convicts In Tamil Nadu’s 2019 Pollachi Intercourse Assault Case

Chennai:

Six years after 9 males have been accused of sexually assaulting and blackmailing a number of girls in Tamil Nadu’s Pollachi, a courtroom has pronounced them responsible. Periods courtroom Choose R Nandhini Devi discovered the boys responsible of gangrape and repeated rape.

The choose ordered life sentences for all 9 convicts – Sabarirajan alias Rishwanth, 32, Thirunavukarasu, 34, T Vasantha Kumar, 30, M Sathish, 33, R Mani alias Manivannan, P Babu, 33, Haron Paul, 32, Arulanantham, 39, and Arun Kumar, 33. They’ve been on the Salem Central Jail since their arrest in 2019 within the sensational case that gripped the nation.

This morning, they have been dropped at the courtroom in Coimbatore beneath heavy police safety; vigilance was intensified throughout town. The courtroom advanced and different key places have been closely guarded.

Over 200 paperwork and 400 objects of digital proof, together with forensic-validated movies of the assaults, have been offered throughout the trial. “The survivors’ testimonies, supported by digital proof, have been pivotal. No witnesses turned hostile, and the Witness Safety Act ensured their identities and security,” stated the general public prosecutor.

Nonetheless, he stated solely eight survivors formally reported the crimes they have been subjected to, underscoring the worry of societal stigma and retaliation.

Girls’s rights activists welcomed the convictions however demanded a systemic follow-through. “This verdict is a reduction, however survivors want compensation, counselling, and authorities job assurances to rebuild their lives,” stated a member of the Tamil Nadu Girls’s Collective.

The Pollachi Case

A chilling sample of exploitation, involving a minimum of eight girls, together with a school scholar, was uncovered when the Pollachi case surfaced in 2019. The survivors have been sexually assaulted, filmed, and blackmailed for sexual favours and cash between 2016 and 2018.

9 males have been charged beneath stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), together with rape, gangrape, repeated rape of the identical survivor, prison conspiracy, sexual harassment, and blackmail.

The convicts filmed their acts of sexual assault and used the footage to coerce victims into continued exploitation, the police stated.

The case was initially probed by the Pollachi police, however it was transferred to the Tamil Nadu Crime Department-Felony Investigation Division (CB-CID), and later to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) amid calls for for an neutral inquiry.

Through the probe, a sample of systemic abuse was uncovered, with the survivors alleging that the accused threatened to leak their movies to their households and communities in the event that they refused to conform.

The trial additionally drew scrutiny as a litmus take a look at for justice in circumstances of gender-based violence, notably these involving extended coercion and institutional delays. Girls’s rights advocates and civil society teams intently monitored the proceedings, emphasising the necessity for accountability the place survivors usually face stigma and procedural hurdles.

The AIADMK, which was then in energy, had confronted criticism for alleged makes an attempt to cowl up the case and the late submitting of the FIR. It had then denied the fees, and the occasion had then expelled one of many accused then.